CLEVELAND — During the greatest of Yankees seasons the outfield was a land of thunder.

From Babe Ruth to Joe DiMaggio to Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris to Reggie Jackson and onto the Joe Torre years, and then Joe Girardi’s 2009 Yankees — the last time the Yankees won a world championship — the outfielders have supplied home-run power.

This season the Yankees have a completely different makeup, essentially trying to win with little outfield power. With Jacoby Ellsbury (five home runs), Brett Gardner (eight) and Ichiro Suzuki (zero), now that Alfonso Soriano has been designated for assignment, this is the opposite of their storied history.

Some of it is circumstance with Carlos Beltran suffering an elbow injury that has turned him into a designated hitter.

On Monday night the Yankees were able to beat the Indians, 5-3 at Progressive Field, because Justin Masterson could not find home plate over his two-plus innings as the Yankees built a 5-0 lead when 10 Yankees reached base against Masterson before he was removed in the third inning.

It’s going to take a string of hits like Monday night for a big offensive night.

“We’re starting to swing the bats,’’ Girardi said of the 12-hit attack that featured two doubles and 10 singles. “It always helps when it’s throughout the lineup because then it gives you a lot of opportunity to score runs. We’re showing what we are capable of doing.’’

The idea of being a playoff force with little outfield power is hard to imagine, though, especially with Mike Trout (23 home runs) roaming center field for the Angels and the A’s getting power from lots of places.

The Orioles are in first place with left fielder Nelson Cruz having crushed 28 home runs. Adam Jones has 16 and Nick Markakis adds seven for 51.

The Blue Jays lead the majors with 114 home runs, the Orioles are second with 108. The Angels are fourth with 97 while the Central-leading Tigers are fifth with 94. The A’s are seventh with 92.

You will find the Yankees 17th with 74 home runs.

In 2009 when the Yankees won the World Series, the outfield of Nick Swisher, Johnny Damon and Melky Cabrera lashed 66 home runs.

Chicks, and outfielders, dig the long ball.

All this puts more pressure on Mark Teixeira, Brian McCann and Beltran, who sat out Monday night’s game with a sore tendon behind his right knee, to hit home runs.

Can the Yankees pull this off with little outfield power?

It’s a stretch, especially when you look at these numbers:

The trio of Gardner-Ellsbury-Ichiro have 13 home runs over 847 at-bats, which is one home run every 65.1 at-bats.

Comparatively, the 1961 main Yankees outfield of Yogi Berra, Mantle and Maris produced 137 home runs over 1,499 at-bats, which is one home run every 10.9 at-bats.

In 1927, the Murderers’ Row outfield of Bob Meusel, Earle Combs and Ruth (mostly Babe) hit 74 HRs in 1,704 at-bats which is one home run every 23.02 at-bats.

In 1996 the outfield of Gerald Williams, Bernie Williams and Paul O’Neill hit one home run every 30.9 at-bats while in 1978 Lou Piniella, Mickey Rivers and Reggie hit one home run every 35.04 at-bats.

This season, the last-place Red Sox are worse than the Yankees. Their current outfield of Daniel Nava, Jackie Bradley Jr. and Jonny Gomes has one home run for every 72.6 at-bats.

These are much different days in baseball.

The Yankees missed their chance over the winter to sign Cruz, which has turned out to be a magnificent signing by Orioles general manager Dan Duquette.

The Yankees also have shown little power at third base, a traditional power position. At second base over the previous five seasons, Robinson Cano averaged 28 home runs for the Yankees.

Make no mistake, Gardner and Ellsbury are excellent and productive players. Gardner picked up three singles Monday night, but they are slashers, not power hitters.

Home-run power from the Yankees’ outfield is a thing of the past, only a part of Yankees history now.

Can the Yankees make playoffs with this outfield?

Instead of stating the obvious, how about the addressing the problem? Why should the Yankees sign Cruz, when they signed McCann, Ellsbury, and Beltran...to go along with Tex, to form a 4 team power potential core that is capable to do make the short right field porch at Yankee Stadium there b**ch? Heck, I did not even add the power potential of Kelly Johnson, Derek Jeter, Alfonso Soriano, and now...Brett Gardner.

Articles like this promote the useless-ness of batters who have high homerun stats but low batting average and on-base percentages, which have resulted in on 1 World Series win since the Dynasty Yankees. All in all, the power is already there in the Yankee lineup. Who cares about what past Yankee teams have done? Teams who have won the World Series, did so with far less homerun power than the Yankee teams from 2001-2013.

Don't try to blame the Yankee front office for this, blame the multi-millionaires OR the people who are in charge of motivating them for this mediocrity.

Gardner is punching above his weight class. Look for him to tail off in the second half. He's signed to a 52 million dollar contract over the next four years that he'll never fulfill. More stupidity on behalf of Cashman and the Yankees brain trust.